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<title>the oregon state motto by 26stars</title>
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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24336175">the oregon state motto</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/26stars/pseuds/26stars'>26stars</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/F, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Marvel Fluff Bingo 2020, References to season 2 finale events, Wingfic</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 06:09:30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,189</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24336175</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/26stars/pseuds/26stars</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Bobbi hasn't had a chance to rehab her wings since she got shot. May takes her out to a quiet space to decide if she wants to.</p><p>Fills Finale Week prompt: 'any f/f ship' and my Marvel Fluff Bingo square 'wingfic'</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Melinda May/Bobbi Morse</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>32</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>AOS Season 7 Countdown, Women of the MCU</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>the oregon state motto</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/lazyfish/gifts">lazyfish</a>.</li>



    </ul></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Bobbi leans back against the passenger seat, watching the trees rolling by outside the window. May didn’t turn the radio on when they left the base this morning, so Bobbi hasn’t reached for the dial either, relishing the comfortable silence in a place other than the medbay or their bedroom. She can still count her outings from the base on one hand, since she’s still on crutches most of the time and getting in and out of a car is a pain in the ass. May didn’t tell her where they were going when they left an hour ago, but Bobbi is fine with that. All she knows is that they’re off the interstate and still headed north.</p><p>The road starts sloping up as the state highway begins to climb into the Appalachians, and May eventually pulls the car onto a further side road that proceeds through thinning trees until they break out into a meadow at the foot of some soft-looking hills. This doesn’t seem to be public property, but then Bobbi spies a small parking area and a trailhead, and sure enough, May pulls them off there.</p><p>Bobbi opens her door and has managed to maneuver herself out and carefully onto her feet before May gets over to her side of the car, and the woman silently hands her her crutches, seeing her firmly situated before closing Bobbi’s car door for her. Bobbi looks skeptically in the direction of the gravel-paved trail, but May squeezes her arm gently.</p><p>“I’ve got you.”</p><p>Out in the clearing at the base of the nearest slope. May spreads out a blanket on the grass and then helps Bobbi sit down on the ground, carefully extending her knee in its brace. Bobbi is far enough along in her PT that she can use it lightly, but she’s still supposed to stay off it as much as possible—hence the crutches.</p><p>May sits down across from her, unzipping her jacket and shrugging it off. Then, she unfolds her wings.</p><p>The black feathers that always seem so monochrome under the artificial light of the Playground now shimmer in the sunlight as she extends them in a stretch, first out to the sides and then behind her. Fragments of golds, greens, and blues leap out of the black expanse as May flaps them once, then shakes out her feathers before re-folding her wings loosely behind her.</p><p>“Feel good to stretch?” Bobbi says with a smile, and May nods, sighing contentedly.</p><p>“Can I help you with your jacket?”</p><p>Bobbi had guessed this was coming once May had driven her out of town, but that doesn’t mean she’s any more prepared for it.</p><p>“No, I got it.”</p><p>Her zippered hoodie, loose, like everything else she wears these days, slides easily off her arms without requiring her to rotate her shoulder too much. She lets it fall to the ground behind her, then takes a deep, bracing breath.</p><p>Bobbi unfolds her wings cautiously, pressing carefully through the stiffness but stopping at the first stab of true pain. With May laser-focused on her, she’s sure the woman caught her microexpression, but May only waits patiently as Bobbi exhales measuredly and flutters her wings a little, letting the mottled feathers rustle into place.</p><p>It <em>does</em> feel good to have them out again.</p><p>“How’s it look?” she asks, glancing at May, who she’s sure is studying the place where a bullet had torn through her wing right before it tore through her shoulder.</p><p>“Better than before,” May answers, and Bobbi fights the urge to roll her eyes.</p><p>“God I hope so. Can you still see the wound?”</p><p>“Not like before. How’s it feel?”</p><p>“Like before.”</p><p>“You should stretch it a little.”</p><p>Bobbi looks away.</p><p>“Not yet.”</p><p>She knows the risk—if she doesn’t move it, stretch it, work it, it won’t take long for both her wings to atrophy. Not much longer for scar tissue and disuse to lock her injured wing into position for good.</p><p>But the thought of being back in the air, back in the thick of things, in the line of fire that had brought her here…</p><p>“You’re gun-shy,” May murmurs, her gaze heavy, so Bobbi keeps staring away.</p><p>“Of course I am,” she mutters through clenched teeth, folding her arms.</p><p>May sighs, shifting on the blanket until they’re sitting side by side and facing the same direction.</p><p>“I’m not here to tell you that you shouldn’t be scared of getting back up there. I’m here to remind you that this—” behind them, May’s wing brushes Bobbi’s healing one, “shouldn’t have the final say on your life. That was the whole point of surviving, right? So that it wouldn’t be the end of the story?”</p><p>Bobbi doesn’t bother hiding the tears filling her eyes, just ducks behind one hand and smears them away as they come. May doesn’t say anything, just stays there faithfully, slipping her hand into Bobbi’s when she lowers it again.</p><p>“I was afraid to fly for months after Bahrain. By the time I was willing to even stretch my wings again, it hurt twice as much.”</p><p>“How long did it take?”</p><p>“To fly again? Awhile. To enjoy it? Longer.”</p><p>Bobbi cautiously stretches her healing wing again, and it bumps May’s. Though the impact is not great, it still hurts.</p><p>“Can I look at it?” May offers, and Bobbi nods.</p><p>May shifts onto her knees behind Bobbi, ghosting her fingers over the tawny feathers. A moment later, May’s lips brush her wing just north of the wound, a gesture so tender it almost makes Bobbi start crying again. May’s hands slide gently around her waist, and Bobbi carefully opens her wings further so that May can curl into the space they yield, leaning gently against her back, her cheek against downy feathers at the base of Bobbi’s neck.</p><p>They stay like that for a little while, leaning against one another while the sunlight works its magic over them, driving out the lingering chill of the base and warming Bobbi to her fingertips. When her tears subside again, she tugs one of May’s hands until the woman shifts back around to her front, and there Bobbi kisses her. May holds on until Bobbi pulls away, looking at her questioningly, measuring the moment.</p><p>“Let me watch you fly for a while,” Bobbi says, looking her in the eye.</p><p>
  <em>Maybe the first step is just wanting to be back in the air. With you.</em>
</p><p>May nods, brushing a hand over Bobbi’s cheek as she gets to her feet.</p><p>May only needs a short running start across the meadow as her wings quickly snap down twice, the second downstroke sending her up high enough to get a full downstroke in that bears her higher, arcing through the air as she gains altitude. Bobbi watches in awe as May’s shape becomes smaller in the sky above her, as the woman goes through what is probably most of her trick book, trying to tempt Bobbi into joining her.</p><p>On the ground below, Bobbi stretches her injured wing again cautiously, feeling today’s limits and deciding those limits can be different tomorrow.</p>
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